Google Street View, Google’s Maps on steroids web application service, has been getting a lot of heat regarding privacy issues ever since it was started. This time, however, it’s certainly gained popularity approval points when images that it captured was beneficial in catching two guys who mugged a teenager in the Netherlands.

A 14-year-old teenager reported to Dutch police in September last year that he was mugged by two guys, costing him his mobile phone and 165 euros (approximately $235) in Groningen, about 110 miles NE of Amsterdam.

The teenager, after seeing his pictures in Google Street View, apparently called back to police last March, saying that Google captured images of him and what looked like his two attackers right before he was mugged.

Groningen police then sent a request for the original photos to Google, since Google blurs people’s faces in Google Street View photos. Google sent back the requested photos, and detectives immediately recognized the two assailants.

Paul Heidanus, a spokesman for the Groningen police, related that he believed that this was the first time in which the Dutch police used Google Street View as decisive evidence in a police case.

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